Marketing techniques have substantially improved in terms of sophistication and efficacy since the days of undirected mass-market advertisements and the like. Marketing campaigns, in particular, desirably balance the number of “impressions” or contacts with consumers with the quality of those impressions and the overall cost of the campaign. The efficacy of a marketing campaign is largely premised on getting the most “bang for the buck”, i.e., the greatest impact for the marketing dollar.
Marketing efforts often vary in the degree in which they “target” specific consumers. Whereas mass marketing efforts generally target a large audience with little or no focus towards particular types of consumers, many direct marketing campaigns are generally targeted toward those consumers who are most likely to respond favorably to a marketing impression.
One specific type of marketing technique is known as viral, or diffusion, marketing. With viral marketing, the recipient of an encounter or impression is desirably used to relay a marketing message to other consumers. Viral marketing thus exemplifies a somewhat more sophisticated form of “word of mouth” advertising. To maximize the efficacy of a viral marketing campaign, therefore, it is desirable to direct encounters toward only those recipients who are most likely to relay marketing messages to others, and thus who are most capable of maximizing the viral relay effect.
In terms of viral marketing, research has found that certain types of individuals, typically referred to as “mavens”, “connectors” and “salespersons”, are critical to applying the viral social phenomenon to effective marketing campaigns. Mavens are typically collectors of information who are motivated to distribute information to other individuals, predominantly due to a social motivation. Connectors are individuals who communicate information of interest to themselves to an unusually large number of other people. Some connectors may merely be “enthusiasts” who effectively relay information to others only pertaining to a narrow area of interest. Other connectors, however, may be likely to convey information to others on a wide number of topics outside of their particular areas of interest. For example, a connector who has a particular area of expertise in musical instruments might still be inclined to relate to others about a wonderful dining experience that he or she recently had at a particular restaurant.
Initiation of viral marketing events through the use of mavens and connectors also requires the addition of “persuasion” into a social interaction. Thus, an individual functioning as a salesperson is often required to initiate a desirable viral marketing encounter.
Traditionally, the identification of suitable targets for viral marketing efforts has been through surveys and other manual, and often haphazard, processes. However, with the advent of electronic communications, and in particular the growth of the Internet, the opportunity exists to utilize computers and data processing techniques to assist in better targeting marketing efforts. In particular, with respect to viral marketing, it has been found that individuals who are influential in the physical or real world (i.e., the “physical environment”) are often influential within the electronic, or “cyber” world (i.e., the “electronic environment”), as well. Thus, it is believed that the identification of individuals who are influential within electronic environments may assist in identifying desirable targets for marketing efforts in both physical and electronic environments.
The Internet, in particular, is interesting from a sociological standpoint for the manner in which “online communities” are formed by different individuals based upon particular areas of interest to those individuals. Moreover, the very nature of the Internet, and in particular the subset of the Internet known as the “World Wide Web” (or simply “the Web”), presents social and marketing researchers with a vast repository of data from which useful trends and relationships may be obtained. For example, research has been devoted to identifying the kinds and qualities of the groups and institutions that people create and use on the Internet, as well as to spot online trends and/or detect customer likes and dislikes from forums and other enthusiast communities, etc.
Also, the interactions of individuals and other entities have been researched to assist in other useful endeavors. For example, research has been devoted to improving searching technologies, and in particular, the results returned in response to search queries, based upon the links between different information repositories accessible via the Internet. For example, one avenue of research has been directed to analyzing the hypertext links between various Internet content items to determine the relative quality or “authority” of a particular content item accessible via the Internet.
One particular avenue of research, for example, is based on the premise that the authority of a particular content item can be assessed based upon the number of links to that item by other content items. Furthermore, to make such an assessment, content items are segregated into “hubs” and “authorities”. Hubs are typically directory-type content items that provide relatively large numbers of links to other content items, much like a telephone directory. Authorities are typically the end use content items that are desirably returned as search results. Assessment of authority is premised further on the dual propositions that (1) a good hub links to many good authorities, and (2) a good authority is linked to by many good hubs. Such dual propositions are then modeled for a particular search space, and quantitative analysis is performed to attempt to simultaneously resolve these dual propositions, typically using an analysis technique such as the eigenvalue technique. Using this type of quantitative analysis, search results may be arranged so as to favor content items that are assessed to have greater authority by virtue of their links to greater numbers and qualities of other content items.
While the aforementioned quantitative analysis techniques have been used in connection with deriving certain types of information from the Internet and other electronic environments, quantitative analysis techniques have not been effectively utilized in connection with the identification of individuals having particular communication capabilities. In particular, quantitative analysis techniques have not been used to analyze individuals' electronic messaging activities to attempt to identify particular individuals who might be useful in connection with marketing activities such as viral marketing campaigns and market research.
The Internet, in particular, presents an ever-growing repository of information regarding individuals and the manners in which they communicate, in particular with respect to the electronic messages that individuals author and convey to others. The electronic messages created and maintained within electronic environments and media such as news archives and forums, list servers, chat rooms, etc. often present a wealth of information regarding the individuals that participate in such environments. Moreover, in many instances, the messages are relatively well categorized and capable of being searched to harvest relevant information about a particular topic. As an example, Internet forums are typically devoted to a particular area or field of interest. With those forums, members often post messages about particular topics or questions that interest them, and other members reply to those messages with answers or further discussions. The original messages and the replies thereto are often grouped into “threads” that present entire discussions in a cohesive manner.
A significant need therefore exists in the art for a manner of quantitatively assessing the communication capabilities of various individuals participating in electronic environments. In particular, a significant need exists in the art for a manner of quantitatively assessing the communication capabilities of individuals to assist in improving the efficacy of marketing activities, such as viral marketing and market research.